200!

kiss at midnight!

Because I am only a few posts away from meeting my 200th post!  Heres a kiss at midnight to celebrate the new year!  What an awesome year it has been!

Smead family 2011 Recap

What an awesome year 2011 has been for our family!  So many exciting events have decorated this year.
Here is a recap.

• January- We had our first OB appt, and found out that the baby we were expecting was actually TWO babies.
• February- We celebrated Scott's birthday.  I painted our bedroom the weekend he went to Kentucky to a farm show for work.
• March-  We celebrate 5 years of Karter being seizure free!  Praise God!
• April-  We celebrated Easter, and find out we are adding 2 more boys to our family!
• May-  Karter has his EEG, still abnormal.
• June-  We had attended Mandy and Chase's wedding, celebrated Gavin's birthday and started weekly baby dr appts.
• July- More weekly dr appts, Celebrated 4th of July, Celebrated Karter turning 6 and me turning 20-something... I think 27 ;)  It's hot, really really really hot.
• August-  Luke and Max joined our family! Both boys started school, and Karter started soccer.
• September-  Soccer practice on tuesdays and thursdays, games on Sundays, we continue to work on adjusting to life as a family of  6.  We get our van.
• October-  Karter's soccer is over the last day of this month.  We attend practice and games.  I am worn out and tired of going places.  We go to the pumpkin farm with Sam and trick or treating with the Allens.
• November-  We take time to remember all the things we are thankful for. We celebrate Thanksgiving, have a little snow, school.
• December-  Christmas, the babies start rolling over we painted the babies room and began the "great bedroom switcheroo"

 

Happy anniversary!

6 years ago....

I married my best friend.  The man who keeps me centered.  The father to our 4 beautiful boys.  The hand I have held though laughter, and tears. 

The last few weeks I have been paying attention to hands. As I get older, I see how much older my hands look.  I love hands, my boys, my grandma's, my mom's, my dad's, and my husband's.

I love holding Scott's hand.  His hands have gotten me through so much in my life.  I feel so safe when his hand is holding mine.  From the weeks when Karter was sick, through the birth of Gavin, through the death and funeral of my grandpa.  When I am sad, scared, excited, though ups and downs his hand is there.

This last year, we held hands in silence in our car as we stared at our ultrasound picture with the two additions we were adding to our family 8 months later.  He held my hand when we found out that both these babies were two more boys.  His hands held me, when I was worried, and when I was emotional.  He held my hand through the deliveries of each of our children. And his hands proudly held our babies as we walked out of the OR together. His hands have taken care of me when I was too ill to take care of myself, they have held mine while we prayed in church.  His hands work hard to provide for our family, they tie our children's shoes.  They are always there for me and I am so grateful for him and I hope that we can hold hands for many many many years to come. 

Happy Anniversary!

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas 2011

I was reading this post from our Christmas last year about what the big boys wanted for Christmas.  It was really fun to look back at to remember.  I thought it would be fun to do again this year since they are a whole year older.

Karter (age 6)

• A remote control airplane (he asked Santa for this)
• books
• bunk beds

Gavin (age 4)

• Chia Obama
• A remote control monster truck
• a motorcycle (he asked Santa for this)

Grandma shopping trips

Remember when I posted about my grandma here?  I thought I would post some pictures of how we do our shopping trips!  I hope that even though Luke and Max are so little that they will remember being pushed in the stroller by my grandma.  Of course I hope that she is here with us, for many many MANY years to come, but I hope they will remember her laugh, her smile, and the way she calls Luke "grandpa" because he looks a lot like Grandpa D.  And every time she sees Max, she says Just how much he looks like Sam (my sister)...every time.  I love my grandma and I love making memories with her.

nursery sneak peak...

I will be giving a grand tour soon! Just need to get somethings on the wall, and finish painting the closet!  I love it and cant wait to share with you!

Christmas

Merry Christmas

From the Smeads!



Christmas morning 2011- the boys in their Christmas Jammies
Karter, Max, Gavin, Luke

What an fantastic Christmas this year!  For starters, it was better than last year because everyone was healthy!  Second these little monkeys joined us for the Christmas celebration. 

Luke and Max are getting really good at tummy time!

Helping Dad open his present

 We had so much fun being together, eating good food and opening gifts.  Sam and I even went on a walk! lol

Gavin loves his new superhero cape!

The big boys got new winter hats

and the little boy got lots of grandma time!

Luke with Grandma D

Max with Great Grandma Betty

A few highlights from this year: 

• We Skyped PapaMo during our Christmas with Jo and Peggy on Friday
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• The big boys got bunk beds, and sleds, superhero capes, and piggy banks
• Gavins favorite gift was the toy engine he got from my mom and dad!
• Karters favorite was the remote control helicopter from my mom and dad!
• This was the first year I didnt already know what I was getting from Scott, but then when it wasnt shipped in time, I figured it out. 
• Santa left an awesome letter for the boys... this was the first year Karter could read it himself.
• The boys cried and cried on Christmas Eve because Scooter our Elf on the Shelf was leaving.
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here comes santa claus

Look who made a stop on his trial run for Christmas Eve. 

The boys were so excited and when Santa told them to go to bed they ran to their bedroom and shut off the lights.  We heard Karter say "isnt this the best night ever Gav"  We are so thankful for our friends Jeremy and Kendy for telling Santa to stop by.

Breaking news...

Max just rolled over!!!!  He is pretty pleased with himself.

Last night was exciting too!  The boys slept in their new room in their new cribs.  This is their first night in their 21 weeks of life NOT sleeping in the same bed.  Such big/little boys!  Max slept all the way through the night, Luke woke up once to eat (and has been eating every 2 hours since) I am starving today too so we must be hitting a growth spurt.

Pictures of the new nursery to come :)

Make a joyful noise....

From our Christmas concerts these last few weeks.

here is the singing from the Church program.  Gosh I wish you all could have been there.  I had tears running down my face it was such a beautiful experience, and you could really feel God there.  Our pastor even posted on facebook that he thought the roof was going to blow!  WAY too cool!!!

And from the school program:

the stockings

January 2010, I knew we were going to try to have another baby... I also knew, if we didnt have another baby, we would be getting a dog.  Either way, we were adding another member to our family and we were going to need more than 4 stockings.  So when I came accross 5 cute stockings in the clearence at HyVee, I bought all five and packed them away for Christmas 2010. 

December 2010 came and when it was time to decorate for Christmas all 5 stockings reminded me that we were indeed trying to have another baby.  On Christmas day, we got a positive pregnancy test.
I was excited that we werent going to have to be putting dog bones in that extra stocking in December 2011. 

What I didnt count on, was finding out in January 2011, that we were really going to be needing SIX stockings not just 5.  The problem is, I love our stockings, so instead we are going to find a new route this year... and maybe in 2012 I will have some time to make some stockings for the 6 of us :)

jingle bells

Cant wait to try these! Caramel Apple Blondies

To make them, peel and thinly slice two average sized apples. With the apples, add a 3/4 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Stir bowl before adding a 1/2 cup of melted butter.

In another bowl, combine 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients together before adding 1 egg and whisking until crumbly.

Combine the two bowls and spread the mixture evenly in a greased pan (double the recipe for a full 9/13 pan).








Bake 35-40 minutes in a 350 degree oven, until golden brown.

The result is an apple blondie, which is not the pinnacle of what we are after.


And so, let's make a little caramel for the top.


Now, in case you've never made caramel before, there are a couple of simple things to remember:

1. You only need three ingredients, but you must have those ingredients ready before you begin.

2. When sugar gets hot enough to melt...it's hot.


Dump a full cup of sugar in a pot, and have 6 tablespoons of butter and a half cup of cream on hand. Turn the burner on high heat (8 out of 10 should do it), and then whisk away until the sugar begins to melt.

Once the sugar submits and begins to break down, remove the whisk, raise the pot slightly above the burner and swirl the mixture to gently finish the melting process.

When fully melted, add the butter and reinstate your whisk!

When the butter has melted and become fully incorporated in the sugar, remove the pot from the heat, place it on a cold burner...

count to five...

And slowly whisk in the cream.

The result will be a creamy, glossy caramel. And once it cools a bit, I know what you can use it for.